Most liberals never lost sight of the potential for evil in big government. They have consistently opposed government power in mat...ters of personal and political belief. Liberals are not unconcerned with economic liberty, but they have come to believe that the common good requires that social justice be given a higher priority than absolute economic freedom. Conservatives are--and always have been--on the other side of both questions. They are much more prone than liberals to limiting personal and political liberties, but they place the freedom of an individual to do as he pleases in the economic realm at the top of their concerns. Social justice has held a lower priority for conservatives, from the days of Alexander Hamilton when they favored strong government as a means of protecting their economic privileges to the days of Ronald Reagan when they see government as an instrument of social justice and therefore a threat to their economic position.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

During the fifties, for example, the American character appeared with some consistency that became a model of manhood adopted by m...any men: the Fifties male. He got to work early, labored responsibly, supported his wife and children and admired discipline. Reagan is a sort of mummified version of this dogged type. This sort of man didn't see women's souls well, but he appreciated their bodies; and his view of culture and America's part in it was boyish and optimistic. Many of his qualities were strong and positive, but underneath the charm and bluff there was, and there remains, much isolation, deprivation, and passivity. Unless he has an enemy, he isn't sure that he is alive. The Fifties man was supposed to like football, be aggressive, stick up for the United States, never cry, and always provide.... During the sixties, another sort of man appeared. The waste and violence of the Vietnam war made men question whether they knew what an adult male really was. If manhood meant Vietnam, did they want any part of it? Meanwhile, the feminist movement encouraged men to actually look at women, forcing them to become conscious of concerns and sufferings that the Fifties male labored to avoid.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Are you more likely to tolerate drivel than you were four years ago? I think the answer is yes. Four years of Reagan has deadened ...the senses against a barrage of uninterrupted nonsense.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Next week Reagan will probably announce that American scientists have discovered that the entire U.S. agricultural surplus can be ...compacted into a giant tomato one thousand miles across, which will be suspended above the Kremlin from a cluster of U.S. satellites flying in geosynchronous orbit. At the first sign of trouble the satellites will drop the tomato on the Kremlin, drowning the fractious Muscovites in ketchup.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Someday our grandchildren will look up at us and say, "Where were you, Grandma, and what were you doing when you first realized th...at President Reagan was, er, not playing with a full deck?"LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Reagan was a flesh and blood version of any other mute national emblem, say the Statue of Liberty. Everyone knows what she represe...nts, but no one would dream of asking her opinion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »